Wednesday, September 16, 2015

No Charges for Irresponsible California Cop

Local newsThe Santa
Clara County District Attorney’s Office has opted not to file criminal
charges against a veteran Gilroy police officer following a May incident
where his teenage stepdaughter shot herself in the leg with his
personal handgun.

Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson told the Dispatch
this week there was no evidence the officer—whose name was not
released—acted in disregard or indifference toward human life in storing
the firearm, which the law requires for a criminal negligence charge.The May 4 shooting on the 500 block of El Cerrito
Way was the result of “inattention or a mistake in judgment at most” on
part of the 13-year-old girl, Hendrickson said. The girl, not named due
to her age, gained access to a .22-caliber handgun belonging to the
officer, and shot herself in the leg around 3 p.m. It was not the
officer’s duty weapon and was registered as a personal firearm,
according to investigators.

“The facts suggest a confluence of events that
normally didn’t happen led to a tragic accident,” Hendrickson said,
adding that the unnamed officer “normally stored his personal firearm
safely.”

2 comments:

"Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson told the Dispatch this week there was no evidence the officer—whose name was not released—acted in disregard or indifference toward human life in storing the firearm, which the law requires for a criminal negligence charge."

"During its end of the investigation, Assistant District Attorney Hendrickson said the officer’s demeanor and behavior following the gunshot was considered. His reaction was consistent with “that of a terrible accident having just occurred” before the teen was rushed to the hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, she said.

Prosecutors gathered no evidence showing the officer had a pattern of behavior where he improperly stored firearms in the past, according to Hendrickson.

“All the factors in the case combined led us to the conclusion it (the shooting) was the result of inattention or a mistake in judgment at most, which the law clearly says is not enough to constitute gross or criminal negligence,” she said."

So this is the vaunted California safe storage law that everyone is supposed to emulate? Considering that we have discussed people being charged with felonies for failing to secure firearms in states with no safe storage laws, and at the other end of the spectrum, we have this.